A challenge to Barack Obama’s eligibility to be president is forming within the Electoral College process, WND has confirmed.

James Grinols, one of 10 presidential electors chosen by the Republican Party of Minnesota, is asking GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan to provide Grinols’ legal counsel, Mario Apuzzo, with their “paper, full form official certificate of birth with raised seal from the place of your birth.”

Grinols told WND that if Romney and Ryan were to win his state, but they ignore his request to provide verification of their eligibility, he might not vote for the Republican candidates in the Electoral College.

“I may be idealistic, but it seems my only available option is to help the Republicans lead by example,” he said.

Grinols’ goal is to establish a standard in the Electoral College that each candidate for the presidency and vice presidency present to duly nominated electors of their parties an official long-form birth certificate to demonstrate that the candidates are qualified as natural born citizens, according to Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution.

Each party in each state in which its candidate is running for president, chooses a slate of electors. If Mitt Romney wins the popular vote in Minnesota, for example, all 10 of the Republican Party of Minnesota’s electors would cast a vote in the Electoral College.

“If we could get Republican electors in all states – all [538] of them – to ask for Romney’s birth certificate, it would have a visible, strong moral pull at least to independents who might finally see the absurdity of a presidential candidate going to court in order to resist being forced to show birth certificate credentials,” he said.

Grinols’ legal counsel, Apuzzo, is a New Jersey attorney who has filed many legal challenges to Obama’s presidential eligibility.

In an interview with WND, Grinols acknowledged he could not force presidential electors for Democrats in Minnesota or Republican presidential electors in any other state to join him in demanding to see the original birth certificates of presidential and vice presidential candidates.

“Still, my goal is to set a standard,” Grinols explained. “If I demand to see the birth certificates as credentials, I hope the idea will catch on and the Democratic Party presidential electors will do the same for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.”

Ultimately, Grinols said, he would like to have the Electoral College set a birth credential criteria for all serious presidential candidates, regardless of political party affiliation.

“I encourage elector nominees of my party and all other parties to do the same,” he said. “I am aware that there are other electors beginning the task for their party. You were chosen for such a time as this. You owe it to your country, your state and your party to trust but verify.”

Letter verifying James Grinols' election as presidential elector for Republican Party of Minnesota

Grinols insisted the requirement to verify candidates are eligible for the office of president and vice president demands electors see long-form birth certificates that are genuine and officially certified by appropriate state authorities.

“Minnesota trusts but verifies future teenage drivers by insisting on a physical, full-form, certified birth certificate with raised seal and will not accept an Internet copy,” he said. “The Electoral College should accept no less.”